Roy Parviz Mottahedeh

Roy Mottahedeh is the Gurney Professor of History at Harvard University. In 1960, he graduated magna cum laude in history from Harvard University and then a second B.A. in Persian and Arabic at Cambridge University where he received the E.G. Browne Prize. In 1962 he returned to Harvard for doctoral studies in history and received his Ph.D. in 1970. Professor Mottahedeh began his teaching career at Princeton University in 1970 and wrote his first book, Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society in 1980. In 1986, Professor Mottahedeh returned to Harvard University as Professor of Islamic History in the History Department, but in 1994 he was appointed Gurney Professor of History. Professor Mottahedeh is the author of numerous articles that demonstrate his wide range of interests from the Abbasid period in the eighth century to Islamic revival movements of the present day. One of his most widely distributed articles, which has been translated into many languages, was his critique of Huntington's theory of the clash of civilizations. Professor Mottahedeh's other publications consider such diverse topics as the transmission of learning in the Muslim world, the social bonds that connected people in the early Islamic Middle East, the theme of "wonders" in The Thousand and One Nights, the concept of jihad in the early Islamic period, and perceptions of Persepolis among later Muslims.